Updating the critical steps of the quality implementation framework: a protocol for an umbrella review of reviews

Implementation science focuses on improving the dissemination, uptake and adoption of evidence into practice. Over the last decade, implementation science research has proliferated, particularly in healthcare and social science. The key synthesis of implementation frameworks conducted by Meyers and colleagues in 2012, and the resulting Quality Implementation Framework, has yet to be updated to incorporate this research. This protocol proposes an umbrella review of reviews (RORs) to synthesise the literature since 2012 on implementation science in the fields of healthcare and social science and provides recommendations for an updated Quality Implementation Framework.

This ROR will be conducted and reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Four academic databases (PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO and Web of Science) will be used to identify peer-reviewed meta-analyses, systematic reviews and scoping reviews published in the English language since January 2012 and report on the development, application or update of one or more implementation frameworks in healthcare or social science contexts. Multiple reviewers will be involved in the screening of articles and extraction of data, and the quality of reviews will be assessed using the AMSTAR (A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews) 2. The outcome of interest is the content of implementation science frameworks reported in the included reviews. The content of these frameworks will be synthesised, aggregated and mapped to the four phases and 14 steps outlined in the original Quality Implementation Framework using both deductive and inductive analysis.

Ethics approval is not required as this ROR protocol and the resulting ROR do not involve primary data collection. The protocol as well as the ROR will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals.

CRD42023475994.